Comedy is a very tough genre to excel at. Why? It's because of the difficulty in knowing what tickles people's funny bone. School comedies are even more tougher to work since the school setting makes it hard to step out and make people laugh. Now there are many supernatural school comedies but none of them made me laugh. Except Saiki Kusuo. Behold, the anime that made a comedy lover like me already decide it's score at a 10 in the middle of watching the show (I decide on ratings after binging a show). This is
my review of Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan. Yare yare, here we go.

"JUSTICE KNIGHTS OF THUNDER!!!"

Supernatural powers already allow so much more comedy that the folks went overboard and made a 120 episode anime over it, now even though they're 5 mins each they're to be enjoyed in bite sizes, much like coffee jello. Since it's a comedy a plot would be too much too ask (which makes sense) and so the only "plot" we got to see was the introduction of new characters. That and some very loosely tied events showed that the story isn't Saiki's best parts but plot progression isn't the only thing that is calculated in a comedy, it being a slice of life excuses that fact so we judge the scenarios that the characters are put in, and so far maybe around 5 out of the 120 episodes were remotely predictable and maybe kinda meh. The rest? Brilliant scenario making and not to mention brilliant story telling. The 5 minute per scenario focus made it even better since everything just kept a consistency of being fresh again and again. And so despite the fact that plot progression isn't the best of what a SOL (or any SOL for that matter) can offer, it more than made up for it by it's scenarios. The way the independent story moved on was easy-going and a joy to watch, even for J.C Staff who are known for being rushers. What does all this mean? Saiki has got a goddamn epic story telling mangaka being the works.

Arguably the best part of the anime is how lovable all the idiots in the anime are. We've got the main character Saiki who seems like he's the only smart guy in the group but then he gets baited by coffee jello, making him a very relatable character for reasons countless apart from the one I mentioned above. Teruhashi as well is an idiot in her own way and the fun part is how determined she is to make Saiki for "Oh!". Nendou goes without saying, his stupidity was so massive that it was refreshing to see such a baka in a comedy anime. Justice Knight of Thunder as well was as Chuuni as you get and Hairo was the Goku everyone knew him to be. Chiyo as well was a funny love interest although she wasn't too fixated on Saiki as Teruhashi was. That leaves us with a few characters who came a bit later on so I won't be spoiling them for you. The point is, if there's one reason why I hold Saiki Kusuo to such high regard, it's the characters. They are, were and always will be the quintessential part of the anime and a huge reason why it's such a joy to watch. An important thing about an anime is to have memorable characters, but just making them stronger and stronger and giving them multiple Saiyan powers won't do the trick, you have to make them lovable. Needless to say Saiki Kusuo more than managed that. There wasn't a single character I disliked in the anime, and that's saying something because I always have that one character I nitpick on and frankly Saiki Kusuo had me dancing with joy and laughter since it's character were so lovable and so fun to watch and interact with together. If there's one thing you should take away from this (overrating) reviewer, it's that Saiki Kusuo has one of the best casts in anime. Period.

Casts remind me of something very important that should definitely not be missed out here, the staff who worked on this beautiful anime. The highlight would of course be our leading man Saiki Kusuo, played by legendary VA Kamiya Hiroshi. You all may know him as Ararararararararagi if you watch the Monogatari series to name just one of the many award winning roles he's played. The rest of the cast isn't an A-Lister but to push them away would be the biggest mistake you'd ever do apart from say Coffee Jello is shit (I WILL end you if you say that), none, I repeat NONE of the characters were bad in their voicing and each of the VAs selected were brilliant. Another important part is the soundtrack. (JUSTICE KNIGHTS OF THUNDER) The OST in this anime is simply breathtaking, I fell in love with the soundtrack early on and that's to say nothing about Natsuki Hanae's oh-so-wonderful voice. His voice graced the first OP and second ED and let's just say it made me go "Oh!". Another thing I went "Oh!" at was Dempagumi.inc. (What? You think I'd go "Oh!" at Teruhashi? Bakaka [I'm lying]). Dempagumi.inc balanced out Hanae's soothing voice with some cheerful and playful action. It was reflected in the visual itself. A fun fact is that Hanae also played Reita in the anime apart from the theme songs. This all shows just how wonderful the soundtrack was along with the amazing characters which I'm sure I don't need to mention by now.

I've loved J.C Staff for a long time, but to say that J.C is the sole reason the anime looks good is totally unfair, the mangaka made the characters so beautiful from both the inside and outside that I was shell-shocked. Everyone was unique in their own way, and like I said before, to make an anime memorable you NEED to make them lovable and unique, and the mangaka and J.C Staff for that matter did that job elegantly. My reviews are rated according to my critical analysis of the anime by my point of view, so many times my score rating and my review rating are at odds but sometimes they do match and I'm sure this is one of those times they do. Why am I saying this? I gave Saiki a score of 10. Now I don't know what rating I gave it now (since I'm writing this before actually rating it in it's respective places) but I'm sure they'll be really close. The reasons are very simple. Be it my critical analysis or my personal enjoyment, Saiki Kusuo is an anime that is simple fun. It's an anime you relax to, cheer up to where you're down or just laugh when you're with your Aibos. Even if you don't have friends (Hontoni just find some friends then :P) watching these lovable idiots in action will give your perhaps cold heart some much needed warmth.

Saiki has a lot of things to it's name. It's first and foremost THE most hilarious school comedy I have EVER seen. Then it has some of the most memorable characters. A soundtrack to dance or sleep to (Ah Hanae Natsuki <3). A well constructed MC. A non-flat love interest. A hilarious Chuuni for once. A whole set of lovable idiots and so much more. And if these don't sell you off then I'm sorry but you won't find a school comedy that gets better than this. I'm well aware that I used to overrated anime before but this isn't just me speaking. This is the MAL score speaking, this is the popularity speaking, this is the amount of favorites this anime has that's speaking. I'm constantly rambling on about the good of the anime (ahem no faults here apart from plot progression) but it's all on you the viewer. Saiki Kusuo speaks for itself. Will you try a much praised show? Are you going to lose something by trying a 5 min per ep show? Do you want to laugh? If your answers to all three questions was "Yes!" then dear sir/madam/person, get your funny bone ready, because it's about to be tickled, like REALLY tickled. Say hello to the best school comedy anime!

Overall Score: 9.4 ("OH! THIS MUST BE DARK REUNION AT WORK!!! THIS CALLS FOR JUSTICE KNIGHTS OF THUNDER!!!")

None of you might know that I had written a review for this show before since I was a rookie to anime and MAL in general (Don't worry, the old review is at the end of this :P). In fact, Kokoro Connect was my 18th anime and my first review, much like every other person's first review it was embarrassing. I 10/10ed everything and called it the best anime of all time. Clearly I fanboyed at this show. Then, more than a year and a half later, I reminisced the love I had for this show since then and much like Aoki, wanted to find
out how much I still love it or if I even do anymore for that matter. Then? I rewatched it. Result? Not a 10/10 but a brilliant show I know I'll treasure forever for it's influence in my early anime days and the psychological theme it gave.

Kokoro Connect, much like it's name is all about the hearts of friends connecting, I'm surprised it isn't called Tomodachi Connect, but egging on trivial matters won't get us anywhere. The reason I loved this show so much before and still do is because it has a psychological theme. It makes you think about your interactions with friends. Would you reveal your darkest secrets to friends? Would you confess to a friend you now love? Kokoro Connect explores such themes, but it's not just the everyday themes it explores, in the case of Kiriyama, it explored her dark past in particular one incident and it's focus on that in an arc left my hair on end. I won't spoil it but it's definitely worth the wait. Kokoro Connect has a lot of drama as well, how fights go out between friends all with just a few secrets revealed and honestly it's quite relatable. We all had fights with our friends for one reason or another (if you don't have friends, this always happens, also, go find friends :P). Now I found the slice of life tag quite confusing especially since Kokoro Connect focuses on a particular plot, Balloon Vine. Things don't repeat and although the daily life isn't exactly like a SoL I can kinda understand why it was kept so. Another important part of the anime was the romance, although not impactful or even deeply explored, it made it's mark. Those expecting romance can find it in plenty in the Kokoro Connect Michi Random special since it's romance oriented.

Speaking of focus, unfortunately the soundtrack isn't something that received it. The OPs and EDs felt bland and I only found the third ED enjoyable. Meanwhile the OST as well felt mediocre, I didn't find it amazing, but I did like a few jingles here and there that played while the VAs did a great job. I found Inaba (Sawashiro Miyuki) quite unbelievable in her acting in various places especially the crying scenes but that shouldn't be surprising as only a handful of recognisable roles were on the main cast's resumes. In spite of that, they did a good job with their representation. On the topic of representation we also have the artstyle, it felt okay. I liked it because the characters looked much cuter than with a generic style. Although the artstyle of the main anime was great, I found some parts (especially the first OP) strange. Not bad, but strange, I guess it was because I was expecting something generic or so. But the artstyle was slightly different and Silver Link got an overall positive for that. Now the issue here is the plot holes that riddled the anime. The biggest of which is Balloon Vine's purpose. His reasons for messing with the kids weren't given at all. And at many times a few of the supernatural elements happened at convenient times, especially that one bit in the last arc.

An interesting bit was the existence of the Special. I haven't seen a special in a long time where it directly tied to the main story in a plot point as Specials and OVAs are usually extra episodes meant to entertain us after the main plot and series is over but that wasn't the case here. Nevertheless it was still enjoyable. It's unique set of characters all made me feel like that. At first I felt Inaba was quite irritating and I questioned my 2016 self for marking her as one of my favorite characters in MAL but the later episodes reminded me why I did so, she went better. Iori, Yui and Aoki all developed amazingly especially because each had a specific arc focusing on them and I didn't find any of them bad. But one character was missing from here. Taichi. To my knowledge, in this 13 episode series he didn't develop at all... The other four got their time to shine in these episodes so I suppose they focused on Taichi in the Michi Random special along with Inaba who also didn't exactly get much focus in this series either.

In the end. After rewatching Kokoro Connect I was reminded of the fun I had watching it and of the impact it left on me. It along with anime like ToraDora, Golden Time and Kaichou wa Maid Sama, influenced me to watch much more romance, which soon developed into a RomCom addiction and so far still exists, although my focus has shifted to pure Comedy I still have the love I had with Romance and watching this reinstilled those feelings within me. Kokoro Connect is not your everyday RomCom because it doesn't focus on either. Romance was only a third focus while Comedy was rare. The true focus of the anime was the bond between friends. Their experiences, their hardships, how they overcome them together and how supernatural elements push them even harder. That's Kokoro Connect.

P.S: In case you're willing to read a cringey fanboyish review here's my old review. Please remember that was my first ever review so I didn't want it to go at a loss XD

Original Review (Oct 15, 2016)
Perfect. In every sense of the word. No anime ever made me so satisfied ever before. Out of all the RomComs I've watched, Kokoro Connect's ending left me satisfied the most. Such a satisfying and perfect anime is indeed rare to find these days. The story, art and character all are perfectly balanced, which is always obviously difficult. I enjoyed the story (though it got me confused once or twice), while the art style is really beautiful in simple words. Especially Taichi, Inaban and Yui. All three were the best looking out of the rest of the group. While for the character, the characters are perfectly relatable as many situations in the anime reflected on common real life problems (I wanna give examples but can't spoil it for those who haven't watched it yet). This anime totally has the potential to stand with RomCom classics such as Clannad,Shigatsu wa kimi no uso, Golden Time and ToraDora!. I really hope there is a second season (Fingers crossed)!

Rain. We always associated rain with something negative, there's even the popular kid's song that goes "Rain rain go away" for that matter, but the thing is, like many other things in this world, some find the positive in it. Kotonoha no Niwa explored the connection between love and rain, and got a great result in the end.

Kotonoha no Niwa was made by the then up-and-coming (now established and famous) Makoto Shinkai. Once again, a romance, the movie although short had a lot to convey. It explored how rain and
love connect, and more important it explored the idea of a young student and a somewhat young teacher's romance. This is definitely not new because large gaps in age were very common (or you could say they were the norm) in ancient times, but this is the 21st century. People consider it weird to see such a gap in between people in love and many even consider it to be a taboo. What most people miss is that love is blind. It doesn't have any barriers (I can already hear the imouto fans snorting). A quiet student and an even quieter woman do make an interesting pair, because we don't see the usual drama that goes on between loud voiced teens, but a silent revelation of the feelings within us.

I expected Kotonoha no Niwa to tug at my heartstrings or at least leave me in as much shock as Kimi no Na wa's brilliance did. The end result? Well, a great story, but less than what I expected. Yukino's backstory wasn't deeply explored (as this was a short movie) but their romance still felt quite lacking. A huge problem with making short films is to make sure everything fits perfectly and it's all balanced unlike full length movies where things can be explored a little more deeply or obviously a TV series where you got a lot of episodes to cover the story in. I feel Kotonoha no Niwa could have done best in a full length format because honestly it felt quite rushed. The final product isn't bad. Just not excellent. That's the difference. One of the big reasons for that was the sudden shift from an easy-going pace to a rush. The final part of the movie was the reason the rest couldn't do as much. It did give you the feels yes, but the development towards it in just 5 minutes felt so rushed. To think those 5 minutes affected the movie so bad is something I noticed for the first time (haven't watched that many anime movies so don't blame me :P). To go back to the previous parts, it was easy-going like I mentioned. But it was also adorable how two people just met each other almost every day, skipping out on their duties and just spending time together, hoping that the rain doesn't stop? Like it's name, it definitely felt like a walk in the garden.

It certainly had some interesting drama. Yukino's sad story and Takao's hard work at being a shoe maker overlapped well for some strange reason. Apart from adorable it left you in awe at how picture perfect they looked together. On that note, the art as usual was amazing. Much like his other movies, Kotonoha no Niwa did not disappoint in the art department, setting the record yet again and dragging us to Makoto's world yet again. Takao and Yukino's romance was beautifully complemented with the backdrops, the background, it's like we were a part of their world. It made me smile and admire the hard work that was put into by the art department. Just the issue was the plot pacing. The characters on the other hand? Well, I said they were adorable right? It's amazing how they made the anime so wonderful with just a main cast of two people. I didn't get bored of them at all. Generally larger casts are hard to develop but they're more enjoyable but I got a ton of enjoyment from Takao and Yukino as well. The rest of the "cast" somehow felt lacking. I know they're supporting characters but I felt kinda like they were stepping stones or something, cast reminds me of another thing I missed out to mention. The voice cast. Kana Hanazawa did it again. She made a 27 year old sound young again. Usually Hanazawa voices much younger girls but she nailed it as Yukino. In fact, I was surprised to learn that Yukino was voiced by Kana and it goes to show how adaptable this award winning voice actress is. Takao's voice actor Miyu Irino on the other hand seemed okay I guess. His backlog isn't the most varied but his popular characters include Ishida (A Silent Voice), Episode (Monogatari series) and Emiya Kiritsugu AKA the better Emiya (Fate Zero 2nd season) but apart from that he doesn't have much to his name. That certainly doesn't mean he was bad as Takao. His performance was notable in the last scene but slow in the other parts.

A really strong suit in Makoto Shinkai's movies is the soundtrack. The piano melodies left you in awe and gave me a feels trip especially since I love piano music. It was simply beautiful, just like the characters and of course the art style. Kotonoha no Niwa isn't your average Shounen vs shoujo or romance. Kotonoha no Niwa is an anime that speaks on many levels, it doesn't show us what to love, but asks us a question, if love is acceptable, then can we love anyone? Even someone much younger/older than us? As a romance fan I say yes, but people may think differently. That won't stop these two at least. To describe in a few sentences, Kotonoha no Niwa is a short movie that is all about the love, how and why we love and who we love. It teaches us about the hardships people go through, slander, lies, hope and turning over a new leaf. The final scene, the climax excellently complimented the anime completely (apart from the slightly rushed development to it). I usually don't like climaxes so close to the end, but Makoto Shinkai proved me wrong yet again.

"I realize now, I was learning how to walk as well. I haven’t mastered the steps, I fall too. But I'm on my path, my path... and one day that path... will take me to her.”

"Musubi is the old way of calling the local guardian god. This word has profound meaning. Typing thread is Musubi. Connecting people is Musubi. The flow of time is Musubi. These are all the god's power. So the braided cords that we make are the god's art and represent the flow of time itself. They converge and take shape. They twist, tangle, sometimes unravel, break, and then connect again. Musubi - knotting. That's time."

Time. It always has a lot to do with memories. Only after spending time with people can we make memories. But what if the flow of time is altered? As human beings, we
always think the line of "if only I could go back in time and change this" but it never happens obviously. What has happened, has happened. So that's what reality teaches us. Yet, the feeling lingers in us. That's where fiction steps in. This is my review of your name. better known to Otakus as "Kimi no Na wa". My name is Yasaal by the way :P

Many people were shocked at the resounding success of Kimi no Na wa. More so they were impressed. How can a non-Ghibli film achieve what Ghibli films have? The answer? If you don't have a Hayao Miyazaki you make your own. And Makoto Shinkai is who they got. He definitely wasn't new to the anime industry. Although he had done many other works his most popular ones previously were "Byousoku no 5 centimeter" and "Kotonoha no Niwa". The latter in particular was interesting since one of its characters featured in the film.

Makoto was praised for his direction many times previously in the aforementioned films but people miss out on an important quality of his which actually surpasses Miyazaki in this field. Multiple Roles. A quick MAL Database search shows us the number of roles Makoto has taken up in his movies. Taking on between 5-7 roles in each film on average shows us he's not only a good director but a talented individual who can handle a whole lot of responsibilities on his own. That's definitely not to say that Miyazaki falls behind, he's got an average of around 4-5 too, which is also mind-blowing on its own, but when compared to Makoto, he falls by a small margin. Why am I comparing these two together? It's because they're both legends. Miyazaki being a legend is as obvious as his movies' successes, but a young Makoto achieving that much in his age left my jaw open. Is it inspiration? Talent? Hard work? All of them?

The reason what makes Kimi no Na wa so popular is how juvenile it is. Its delicate plot is nothing but sweet and cute. Isn't that how we wish our high school lives to be? Now the question here is, is it always that way? Are our high school lives always so sweet and cute? Definitely not. There's sadness, there's pain, there's the feeling of losing someone close to you, be it a friend or a girl/boyfriend. Although obviously this show is tagged supernatural, that doesn't excuse it from still being realistic and exploring the emotions in us. Miyazaki's approach was to everyone, Makoto's approach was to the teenagers. And since it was so relatable, we teens ourselves adored the movie.

Its plot was so easy going at first that I felt it wouldn't get better but the second half slapped me across the face. A slap I was happy to have since it meant the movie is moving on beautifully, and no, I'm not a masochist. A good tactic of directing is to split parts of the story instead of trying to manage all of it at once. Now the latter technique isn't necessarily bad, it's just that it takes much more effort and care to get it done right. Getting things done is easy, getting them done right is hard. The first half of the movie showed us how Tokyo is, how Mitsuha's town is (Its name is a spoiler so I didn't give it, so much for "your name.", Pardon the pun).

It's eye candy. For that matter, the whole movie itself is eye candy. The art is so breathtaking I lost my breath admiring the backgrounds, the sights, the characters, the faithful representation of Tokyo and Mitsuha's town (in classic Japanese style). Now I did watch this movie in 60fps so that isn't on Makoto's side (maybe) but that all the more made the movie so wonderful. Maybe he did make the movie 60fps from the start. But it's the second part of the movie that made it Kimi no Na wa and not Yamada-Kun to Nananin no Majo (Sorry Yamada-kun). The suspense left on you, the pace that suddenly increased from the homely nature of the first half to a comet's speed at the second half left you taken aback it all built up everything in you for the climax that would come. And then... A tag not completely explored plays in. Something so juvenile yet I haven't mentioned it. Love. Unfortunately, I can't delve deeper into this Romance since it's all a spoiler in itself so allow me to only scratch the surface. It's adorable. It's cute. It made me laugh then left me in despair. It brought out all the teenage emotions I so bury inside myself like no other anime, (except Koe no Katachi of course). For the first time in a while, I felt like I was a part of the action itself. Like I was with Taki, I was with Mitsuha. I was moving around the lovely streets of Tokyo or admiring the scenery at Miyamizu shrine. The best part of the anime is its art. Period. You won't get art better than this, and as a Ufotable fanboy, take this as the Gospel truth as that's saying something.

So we've talked about the story and the art and the emotions it left in me. We're still missing something important. The music. RADWIMPS did the music for the anime and let's just start with the fun facts before we delve in. Kimi no Na wa's soundtrack was something I admired BEFORE I even watched it. Since around July or August of last year, I've been in love with Kimi no Zense. I learned all the lyrics in a flash and the song was the only OSU song I successfully completed at an S are 3* (I'm not good at tappity tap games as you see), this all shows how much I loved it. Yumetourou brought in the hidden emotions in us, Kataware Doki made us cry rivers and rivers. The music is a beauty to behold.

"Even when you completely disappear and all of you is torn into pieces
I won't be lost anymore, and I'll start searching you from the beginning again
Or rather we can start a world from zero" - Kimi no Zense

With lyrics like these, it leaves your hair on end. If you ask me how I felt about the music, to reply with RADWIMPS' own lyrics "My heart rushed here faster than my body could". Like I mentioned above, it's lyrics, it's beat, all fit perfectly in all the places it was kept, and I mean all the songs. It had the fun, it had the sadness, it had the romantic lyrics, it had character. Speaking of character, Taki and Mitsuha. Since this anime revolved around them the supporting characters were pushed aside in favor of them. Now the thing here is that they both didn't develop to the extent I thought them to be (high standards I guess?), But the reason might be because they were already so well created from the start. When something's good why change it? With that ideology, the characters didn't go through a rushed development, they improved along with the plot. They made me cheer for them. I laughed at them, almost cried for them, smiled at the fun they had, and so many other emotions went through me watching these two characters doing what they do, most important of which was that they both were heartwarming. The flow of events Makoto had woven left my eyes open (my jaw was already open before, so eyes. Resisting a bad joke here but whatevs). I can say nothing but praise for Makoto and I have a lot of hope for his future works. They're definitely going to be equal to Kimi no Na wa, if not better.

Kimi no Na wa is an anime that resonates with us all. It's not just any other Romance anime. I'm speaking as a hardcore Romance watcher here. Although I've spent my time on Comedy anime after finishing Gintama back in October of last year, before that I was always Romance first. Watching a lot of them gave me an understanding of how and what cliches would play out. Even as a cliche hater, I say that cliches aren't necessarily bad. It's their execution that matters. Body changing anime have existed before, the aforementioned Yamada-kun is a good example of a body changing gender-bender anime. Yet Kimi no Na wa feels different. It is different. Yet so similar. And that's what makes it so adorable.

Warning: Unconfirmed rumors and hints of a rant below, skip to the next paragraph if you are a sensitive person.

Kimi no Na wa had taken the top spot over the incredibly overrated FMAB for quite a long time, at 9.37 or so I think, but then this is MAL. Due to the poor rating system, FMAB fanboys gave Kimi no Na wa 1 or 2 and brought that down to second place. Satisfied that they brought their overrated anime back to the top they stopped the underrating. A similar problem happened to Gintama as rumors say but that unconfirmed. Back to Kimi no Na wa, it's amazing it managed 2nd place among overrated titles and multiple sequels and the fact it crossed all seasons of Gintama is also mind-blowing considering how it's fanboys like me give it a 10 or a 9 each time.

Rant over. Continue normally.

Now a fun story of me and Kimi no Na wa's relation goes back to when I started out anime. It was September 14th, 2016 and I was obviously just 3 days into the anime world, I joined the anime world at the 11th. Yes, quite the unfortunate timing but eh. I checked the ranking and saw Kimi no Na wa at first place since it was Romance, a genre I was interested in for SOME reason I'll perhaps never know (because I never liked romance before watching anime) so I PTWed it. Evidently, I never planned on watching it for a very long time. Until around August of last year when I started torrenting anime, I torrented a 60fps version of the movie and thought "Hmm. I'll watch this in a few days in this month itself" and yet again I left it on my memory card. So near yet so far.

It was my close friend who forced me to watch Kimi no Na wa few days back that I thought "Let's get this over with" not in an irritated way, but to quietly end the story between me and the movie peacefully and give the movie what it definitely deserved for a long time, my attention. I gave it and here I am beaming with happiness at this masterpiece of an anime. Yes, it's not perfect, nothing is perfect. A 10/10 doesn't mean perfection. It means it's a masterpiece. It leaves its impact everywhere. Either it be the box office, the MAL rankings board and most importantly us and our hearts. It brings out the juvenile feelings within us. That's what made this movie a masterpiece. You don't force an emotion into someone, you give it time and make us develop the emotion within us. That's what Makoto envisioned and succeeded at. An 8.9 at IMDB and a 79% on Metacritic might put some people off, but here's the thing. This is an anime. An anime getting that much buzz in the West is shocking. It proves anime is growing. The industry is growing. And thanks to assistance by Funimation, more and more people got to see it. Even if you don't like the movie you can't deny that along with the Ghibli movies, Kimi no Na wa and Makoto Shinkai, in general, will push the anime industry forward. In case you forgot to my name, my name is Yasaal :P

"I have no desire to kill you. In fact, you're not worth killing. Killing you, would only tarnish my blade." - Jin

Time and time again I've iterated that there's no such thing as "perfect". Perfection is impossible to have, because it's whole ideology is completely subjective. What's perfect in one thing is not necessarily going to have a unanimous agreement between people simply because their opinion on a particular thing's perfection is like I said subjective. Nevertheless we always see things get close to it. Coal mines were overtaken by steam, which in turn was overtaken by all the renewable energy. It's not perfect, it's
what people think is close to perfect. Now out with the normie beginning, I'm here to talk about one such thing that has inched ever so closer to perfection. No prizes for guessing what I'm talking about. Yes. Samurai Champloo.

Samurai Champloo is a journey. Or in this case you could say the journey is Samurai Champloo. It's not just Mugen, Fuu and Jin going off on a journey. It's us viewers as well. Traveling is all about meeting different people, visiting new places and making friends here and there. But people miss the important part about traveling. The feeling that remains in us while we do the journey and once we end it. Samurai Champloo in that sense has achieved a perfection here. It beautifully showed us how our emotions go about when we travel, albeit in Edo style.

I haven't even stepped into the music category (which is the single quintessential reason I can keep this over anime greats like Gintama and the like).

The way how events unfold and move forward is so natural and realistic it made me feel as if this isn't an anime. Many people regard anime as an escape from reality, which is definitely true, but there's the other side of the coin. Anime showing us reality in a different way. Samurai Champloo takes the latter route. Either there was an independent episode or there were arcs, both excellently flowed the plot to us and left us in awe of what's next. Some parts made you grit your teeth in suspense. Why? It's because Samurai Champloo knew how to handle the emotion. Not once did I feel as if I knew the outcome of a battle when our two sword fighters were engaged with a tough opponent, and for a media like anime, or action itself for that matter, it's applaudable. Even in the final arc, I was taken aback by who lived and who didn't. No spoilers so don't worry. I was never a fan of Historical anime, but much like Gintama, it was not only bearable but enjoyable. From the first episode to the last, much like it's music, Samurai Champloo beautifully showed us the story it had to tell with one-or-none plotholes and the like.

If you've seen my list and stats, I haven't watched many Manglobe anime, yet I consider myself their fan after Samurai Champloo. The art was breathtaking. I can find no other words to describe it. Maybe groovy I guess? The fight scenes were a huge highlight of the anime, and for great reason. Unlike most other studios, Manglobe knew how to incorporate suspense and awe-inspiring knitty gritty action scenes. And for both of the main samurais, Jin and Mugen, had their own unique fighting style and the animation proved that even further. The amount of detail as well dedicated to the backgrounds and the character design as well were beautifully done.

Samurai Champloo arguably has the best soundtrack of all time. Why? It's because there was one composer who contributed a lot to the anime, Nujabes. Battlecry has become larger than the anime itself and although it doesn't get featured much on any "best anime OP" lists that certainly doesn't mean it's not amazing. If the anime was more popular I'm sure it would get the attention it deserved. The rest? The background music went slow at times and scary at times. It perfectly did it's job as background music, to create a feeling within us which the main activity can't do, ease in emotions in us. Take for example a scene where Mugen was about to walk over to someone in rage, the drum beat that played definitely raised my hair on end.

Shiki no Uta had me dancing, snapping to the beat. I got so engrossed in the soundtrack overall that it took me just a few episodes to learn the lyrics by ear, something that NEVER happened to me before. It wasn't just Nujabes and Minmi doing all the brilliant work on the OP and ED respectively, but the others as well. Never have I ever seen inserted endings go on par with the actual endings, which are already so amazing no questions asked. Another thing, never have I ever turned up the volume when listening to an ED so much while watching an anime episode. If 11/10 existed, the music section and Nujabes himself for that matter, would have it given by me in a heartbeat. Pardon the pun.

If you read my normie opening paragraph at the beginning, you might remember that I said nothing is perfect, even though the concept of perfection, much like right and wrong is subjective. Not being perfect doesn't necessarily mean something's bad too however. In terms of Samurai Champloo, the characters prove that point. The weakest part of the anime (if 8 is considered weak) are the characters. Mostly because of the villains. Let's start with our main characters.

Fuu was very irritating throughout the anime, I found myself rolling over in irritation each time I heard "Himawari o-samurai-san" since it got repeated each and every time in almost every episode. I may sound like I'm exaggerating (which is true) but this was the one thing I got pissed at each time at the anime. Apart from that her performance in the final arc did a complete 180 of my view of her. The episodes leading up to the final arc as well highlighted an amazing new door to her personality in my eyes.

Then we have Mugen. I can see why many viewers would love a character like Mugen especially since he's so badass and in many ways cooler than Jin, ahem, literally. Since most of the episodes revolved around Either Mugen or Jin (with the final arc being the sole exception as it was focused on Fuu, but you could say it was equally focused on all three as well, but as for those two, they) got one episode or an arc dedicated to them each and it kept rotating between them until the end. This was especially good since we weren't tired of following only one person on multiple continuous arcs. His backstory, much like the other two was not the most positive thing you'd hear for a guy that badass, the middle of the anime will explain further if you're interested, I'm not spoiling anything :P. From the first episode till the end, we saw 26 tantrums, but we got 52 epic fights and quotes, literally. Don't go counting up everything now :P

Jin. At first I was on Team Mugen but sooner rather than later I switched to Team Jin. Why? It's because Jin is the literal example of "cool". His backstory isn't lacking either. Rather, on a personal note I found Jin's backstory much more relevant to the plot and more badass than Mugen or Fuu's. Much like his demeanor, he silently crossed the ranks and became my favorite character in the anime. I don't know about most other people, but I loved Jin as a character because he was fleshed out as one himself. The arcs that focused on him focused in his past as well and I feel even though all three characters' pasts were equally explored, Jin's backstory was one that gave out more detail. And sadness too.

Then why an 8? The villains. None of the villains had even half a proper motive for what they did. I expected Sara's arc to give out a well designed villain but unfortunately she too was poorly designed. So much for the drum beats and Mugen's rage. Once again, since there's no context no spoilers. Don't worry and carry on. Apart from that other villains themselves did no better. At best to contradict myself I can say the villains had half a motive but none had a full one. All of them felt cliched in on way or another and since this is the first time I used that word in this whole review that's saying something as well. Nonetheless, if not for Jin and Mugen's backstories and Fuu's final arc performance, even a 7 would be tough to achieve, let alone an 8.

If the score and my words didn't directly show it to you, I'll make it direct, I'm a huge fan of Samurai Champloo. I came expecting something worth a 7-8 and instead got a show worthy of a 10. Faults are present yes, for that I'm willing to slice off 0.4 out of the score, but they're not worth anything more. Story? Excellent. Art? Breathtaking. Music? Listen to Shiki no Uta and let it do the talking. Characters? ..... Brilliantly designed main characters and bad villains I suppose. Nevertheless, to end this on a positive note (if all this positivity and small amount of fanboying weren't enough,) Samurai Champloo may appear to be just your everyday quiet Samurai anime with boring historical references and an even boring sound track, rest assured you will get the EXACT 180. You're gonna get the most hip (and hop) anime you'll ever see kono yarou!

P.S: Fuu was as she said the only main girl, so waifu corner is now Husbando corner for the second or third time ever I guess. Anyway to make it short. Jin best boy B)

...And those were glasses...

"Kiss my ass." - Mugen

Joking :P. Even though that's a real quote said by Mugen here's another one as apologies XD

"If we were all the way up there, no one here'd look any bigger than a grain of sand." - Mugen

Fun fact: I at first planned to rate this a 9 while watching (which goes against my policy of not rating unairing anime until completion but then stopped and thought "Let's see where this goes". Here I am with a 10 on my hands XD

Now before you (the fanboys) rush into my profile calling me a hypocrite for not 9/10ing Food Wars for the third time, hear me out here. It's a good show. Just that it wasn't good enough. I think J.C Staff themselves understood that something was wrong, hence the step of making a split cour and figuring out how to get things right next time. Dewa, hajimeru yo!

Story: 6/10

Somehow this felt kinda average to be honest. I expected it to go at a better pace and cover stuff properly but frankly I couldn't find
much that was amazing. Thanks to more focus on Erina and her cliched adventures and a certain badly characterized father the story part took a nosedive, although not too great as the focus wasn't that deep. It's difficult to go deeper without entering minor spoiler territory so bear with me. Central was a pretty cliched move and their motivations were weird and cliched at best, not to mention if there WERE any in the first place. On the other hand that certain father's motivations himself were also terribly disappointing... As a fellow manga reader I was quite disappointed with this in the manga as well, but enough of that. If there was one focus and one downfall of this anime in quality, both have that father as the reason. Now you might point at that mean score and popularity chart and look at me questionably to which I say, it's the fanboys. Being a Shounen, there are obviously bound to be fanboys who take no notice of the issues surrounding an anime or it's sequel and just blindly 10/10 or in my case 9/10 everything. I'm guilty of that myself but I won't do that for this season. Season 3 slightly disappointed me as a fan and as an anime watcher. A small reason for that 6 in particular is also that cliffhanger in the end...

Art: 7/10

Now something I noticed in this season particularly was that the art sometimes felt distorted and the characters looked a little weird in close-ups. This wasn't there in the previous two seasons and I felt kinda like I was watching a remaster of a 1995 anime at best which is obviously not a very good sign. What was the saving grace of the anime? The backgrounds. The cinematography to some extent. Both were decently done and even the character designs made me fall in love with the characters yet again. Not a bad job. Decently done at best.

Sound: 8/10

Apart from the usual brilliance of the BGM, we also had the added benefit of an amazing OP and more importantly an amazing ED. The BGM was timed perfectly with the emotion and situation while the aforementioned OPEDs hyped you up. If you like me love to download anime OSTs then this is the place for you.

Character: 6/10

Now it's impossible to avoid the spoiler territory with this section especially since the character in question is the main focus of the anime (he's on the flipping cover as well). The purported rise and actual fall of Food Wars Season 3. Azami. His motivations weren't explained at all. And Sanzaemon's exile felt kinda forced as well. Yukihara and gang were amazing as always, but the character who was the key focus himself was flawed so everyone suffers. I tried many times to wrap my head around Azami but couldn't understand him at all... And for the second character who brought this down, Erina. To all those who've read my last two reviews of the series know very well of my hatred and grudge against Hime-deres, Erina included. What made it worse this time? The unnecessary focus on the 'oh so weak' Erina-sama. She and Azami double-handedly crushed any potential the season had to improve...

Enjoyment: 8/10

Nevertheless, Food Wars as usual was an excellent anime to enjoy and I certainly DID enjoy Food Wars a lot, just not to the extent of the previous two seasons. In my opinion, I'm glad J.C Staff bit the pill and split cours to understand what went wrong and how to fix it. Since I'm a Food Wars fanboy, I obviously was a little biased towards it but tried my best to tone it down. I really hope J.C hit back with another super hit season. This time one that actually has the quality to back itself up like Seasons 1 and 2.

Overall: 7.2

To get an idea of how much I love Food Wars here are my scores for the previous two seasons: 8.8 and 9.4. Fanboy much? Now look at this one, 7.2. A lot happened didn't it? I know, you know and J.C Staff knows. To the most conservative of people, this show was decent at BEST. And no amount of fanboy nagging can change that. To all those who watched season 2 and are a fan, continue, if you're just in it for fun, you might get it here. Thankfully the potential is not ruined, but again, the question remains, is it too late? Can J.C save Food Wars? Let's see this Spring.

P.S: Megumi retains her rank as best girl for the third time in a row! Megumi best girl >3

Recently I was out of anime to watch and was looking for a few of them and came across Dakara boku wa H ka dekinai. I heard a lot of praise especially for it's second half and as I was dropping anime quite a lot here and there I thought about giving a shot and let's just say it didn't go well for me...

Story: 2/10

At best I could describe the anime as "border to hell" with a 2. That's the most I could ever give it for the story section. Call me wierd, but I am very particular about a plot in an Ecchi anime,
so I went in with DxD-like expectations and got severely disappointed, and sadly there were a whole long list of reasons apart from that which made me hate the show as well. I'll go step-by-step, since the anime itself was divided into two parts, I divided my story section into two parts for easy understanding.

The first six episodes are basically plotless and contribute zilch to the plot, it's just ecchi and more excuses for more ecchi. Characters being introduced in a cliched manner and wasted exactly HALF the anime in it. You might bring up the excuse and say "but that was fanservice for the fans, it's Ecchi, it has to have it". Well, sadly this anime itself couldn't decide so who am I to judge. It was a harem in second, then pointless Ecchi in the next, and then weak plot. The studio couldn't even decide WHAT to follow for the first half and made me think as if the studio just licensed an anime and opened the reference books a few days before the airing date. Thankfully I went past the tortious first half and the end of episode six revealed that the next half (un)fortunately will focus on a proper plot (made you think the studio finally got their hands straight didn't they? Wrong.

The second half was something that was praised a lot by other reviewers and watchers, not to mention people said the ending was excellent, so I forced myself through the first half and trudged on to the next episodes, what did I get? A bunch of zilch in return. In the most basic sense this anime tried to pull off a Hyoudou Issei DxD-esque rescue-person-in-another-world plotline and let's just say much like the rest of the anime, they ruined it. Plain and simple. A cliched villain, ***MINOR SPOILER: whom we don't see the face of at all, for no absolute reason...END SPOILER*** a cliched adventure, a cliched set of pointless fanservice yet again (that excuse won't work anymore my friend, this half was plot-time, and a whole lot of plot holes. If you compare the amount of plot holes in this anime to a beggar's clothes only 2 times out of 10 will the beggar's clothes have more holes than this plot, which by the way is the score this anime deserves for a terrible story line. I'll end with a weak joke, it was "a border to hell". There you go, obligatory hell joke in anime about hell is obligatory.

Art: 3/10

I think I know why I immediately understood who the studio was because it was a mess as usual from Studio feel. The familiar washed-out artstyle and horrible effects immediately pointed feel. toward me and I wasn't surprised that I was right (although I was kind of surprised). Going in detail on those aforementioned reasons, even at 720p it looked washed-out. This is a familiar tactic used by the lazy art directors at feel. and I remember this clearly since SNAFU S2 where they ruined an excellent artstyle (courtesy Brain's Base for the excellent first season) and that was seen here as well. As for the effects, the characters had to perform action sequences and throw spells at each other, those required effects at a good level and feel underdelivered. They looked like something a rookie would make, no joke. It looked terrible to be honest and the washed-out artstyle made it even worse. And don't get me started on that horribly lazy tactic used in between episodes 9 to 11 as a green background almost everywhere to save time and be more lazy. As for character design, I can say that was the saving grace of this section and if not for the character design, it would've gotten a one, once again no joke. You can clearly see some effort (perhaps the only effort) out into the art into the characters. They looked vibrant, cheery and better than the rest of the art section in general. I personally like the shades of colours used for everyone, especially Quele, Lisara and Iria. Other than that... Well nothing positive so let's end here.

Sound. 4/10

At best I could describe the sound section as decent. Apart from that massively forgettable OP/ED (although I must admit later on the ED was kinda catchy, but kinda) the OST too couldn't figure itself out. You won't believe me if I tell you that the sound changed EVERY episode. Not a good sign when you've got sub-par story and art scores. The VAs more or less did their job decently which is why I've given a 4 and not a 2. On the other hand like I said the OST was a mess, especially the BGM.

Character: 1/10

Woah, this is the first time I've ever used 1s 2s and maybe 3s in a review ever. Well, I can say that the characters were promising at first but it's what happened to then later which made me give them this outrageous number. They took that potential and threw it down the garbage and shoved it down your throat. If you want an easy example to understand through, this is it. I'm already severely disappointed in TsunDeres and our Rias Gremory wannabe Lisara Rest-whatever was a painfully bad TsunDere. Apart from being a 99.9% Tsun, that .01% came through in the last Episodes and if you think that's enough to make me change my mind, well you're sadly mistake.I still can't believe what made people think that ending was any good. Personally I'd be glad if it went the way of the "bad guys" since that way I could have been a bit more generous in my scoring but then this HAD to go the typical Shounen route. Anyway, speaking of Shounen, we move to Erosuke, I mean Ryousuke, unlike Hyoudou Issei, this guy was a hilarious attempt at a pervert MC. Forget about his cliched energy, the way he got his power among many other things made me feel like banging my head on a table. As for the denseness, a thing noticed in many romance anime, well I can say this sole reason is the one I'm giving a 1 and not none. As for the other jokes we move to our onee-sama cliche 'imouto', Quele. I rooted for her throughout the anime (I moved on from Mina due to reasons I'll detail later) but then after that pathetic fanservice scene in the second half I LOATHED her as well. Mina was a character I instantly liked at first, but like this anime, my support for her crumbled faster than the plot did. She was too damn shy to be supported anywhere in the course of the anime. It was painfully obvious at the start who would win in the end. As for our other character who was brutally pushed to the side, Iria. She was your basic "rival" archetype and that didn't please me at all (even in that way if you take it). There was nothing about her that wasn't cliched. 'Nuff said. She wasn't even the breast character in the anime (apologies for the pun), which puts her appeal to the maximum of 0.

Enjoyment: 3/10

Yes, the characters were horrible, yes the artstyle was washed out, yes the story was cliche as hell. But yet there was something that made me watch this anime and not dropping it, perhaps it was the way the after-credits scene was handled after each episode, or because I was dropping too many anime, or because I watched it to crush it in this review, or more likely all three. As for the fanservice part, it was absolutely fulfilled, although I'd love some reasons as to why it happens, heck, even half an excuse would work (such as Yuuki Rito's antigravity control, just kidding). I may sound positive but in the end it was almost worthwhile watching the anime.

Overall: 2.6 (Averaged)

Breaking the record for my lowest rated review, Dakara boku wa H ka dekinai takes the top cake as my worst reviewed anime ever. If you're in it for the plot, you'll be disappointed, if you're expecting some character development, you're an idiot (apologies for being rude), if you're in here for the Ecchi, well most of you will be satisfied. I was very surprised that this anime was praised for it's last arc and the last episode because frankly I ironically found the first half almost understandable than the second half which was a mess and a failed copy of DxD. On a personal note, it yet again disappointed me as a TsunDere fan since Lisara takes my award for the worst character of the anime. Period. All in all, this is an anime which you'll be forgiven if avoided and rewarding if you love ecchi with no plot and just oppai, although I must admit, it might be a fake too. I'm honestly half surprised at the score the anime ended up with. I expected a little more, maybe 4 but at 2.6 it makes me laugh a little. To be frankly honest with you ***SPOILER: If the end was tragic, perhaps I'd be a bit more considerate and I thought about this throughout the anime, and sadly it didn't happen. It took the pathetic harem route with no meaning to it, it didn't even try making up an excuse for the ending...

P.S: After such a disgraceful score I don't think I have a waifu for the wait corner. All I can say is that Caesar is the best character of the anime. That's it. Goodbye. No waifu corner. This anime doesn't deserve one.

Every now and then, you see one show in a season that no matter what other shows you watch it sticks in your mind, and slowly but surely it becomes your AOTS, or Anime of the Season. Osake wa fuufu ni natte Kara is my AOTS for Fall 2017, easily edging out Urahara and more importantly edging out fan favorite Shokugeki no Souma's third season. How? How did such a small and less known (in comparison) title beat out Shokugeki? Read on and find out.

Story: 7/10

Being my first entry to the "short anime" sub-genre, I felt quite irritated at first that a show was just
3 minutes per episode and thought it wouldn't be able to pull it off. Boy was I wrong. The central theme of Osake wa Fuufu was Alcohol, no prizes for guessing, but it wasn't just alcohol, no no, if that was true it would never have beaten Shokugeki (I'm bringing it up constantly since it's also a show having to do with a consumable, food compared to Osake which is also focused on a consumable, alcohol). What made it superior was the relationship between the characters, their interactions, the brilliant way the anime showed how alcohol takes it's place in different times of the day and at different situations. There was no central plot, but there was alcohol, and there certainly was a lot of cute moments WHICH by the way, were totally still related to alcohol. The most amazing thing with the anime was that Alcohol became the story, the plot. Coupled with the fact that it marvelously mixed alcohol with every other aspect of the anime, I give it a standing ovation. If only it had been longer, if it were a full length anime I'd happily award it a 9, no joke.

Word of the paragraph: Alcohol

Art: 8/10

The art was a wonder to watch. Since it was based on booze, the booze HAD to look good, and it looked damn mouthwatering. One of the wierdest points I felt in a good way about the anime was that the art, especially the alcohol looked oddly satisfying. Character designs were different from the generic style in the way that the colors were way more rich (like a good glass of bourbon) and what was the cherry on top of the wine was how cute they looked. Chi-chan could easily be my favorite character design in the WHOLE of 2017. Not exaggerating. More praise coming in the character part. To end the art section here, it was as mentioned before: Oddly Satisfying. 'Nuff said.

Word of the paragraph: Booze

Sound: 9/10

From the cute and perfect Seiyuus to the addicting ending song to the sound the liquor made when it was poured into the glass, the sound section was amazing and easily one of the best parts of the anime. Chi-chan was adorable (wait for the character section for more), Sora too sounded like the perfect husbando and the other supporting cast also sounded very much like real adults just going out for a drink. The way the VAs made adult drinking life sound so relatable to adults was a huge help in bumping that score up to a whopping 9. A standing ovation from me for sure.

Word of the paragraph: Liquor

Character: 8/10

Easily my favorite part of the show, the characters were beautiful, both by looks and personality. Chi-chan was so perfectly and so realistically done I can name her my Waifu of 2017 in just a heartbeat, NO OTHER CHARACTER came EVEN CLOSE to her quality. Why? Relatability, the "moe" effect, heck, even spirits helped her boost her appeal in my eyes to that of "Waifu of the year" (though I'd prefer calling it "Best female character of the year"). You might think the male's side won't have the spotlight, well you're wrong, Sora ALSO takes the top cake as "Husbando of the year" (once again, I prefer it to be called "Best make character of the year"), why? He's perfect! He's charming, he can cook, but most importantly, HE CAN MAKE THE BEST ETHANOL. Not just that, a later episode also shows the backstory of how they met, why an I mentioning this? To prove that this anime isn't all ethanol everywhere (although admittedly you won't be wrong if you guessed alcohol snuck everywhere too).

After almost a paragraph of praise you look at that score of 8 and look at me confused. Why 8? Why so much praise then? Well, some of you might have noticed that I haven't talked about the supporting cast at all. Sadly this was the problem this anime faced. Being a short anime, it couldn't focus on the supporting cast at all... They were shown at some points but looking for the impact they made is like looking for a needle in a haystack... The supporting cast was barely shown and you might bring up the excuse saying "but Osake focuses only on Chi-chan and Sora" to which I say then why bring up the supporting cast AT ALL then? If you show them once, make them appear frequently if you can't develop them. That at least would be enough to make me give this a perfect score... But to end in a good note, Chi-chan and Sora alone handled it all by themself, if the supporting cast disappointed me, the main cast FAR exceeded my expectations. Both of them won my Character of the Year. That's enough to make me happy.

Word of the paragraph: Ethanol

Enjoyment: 10/10

A 10? What?! How? An anime about intoxicating drinks got a 10/10 from a non-alcoholic drinker? Impossible? Baka-nano! This wasn't according to keikaku?! This is all I expect from you to say (minus the last one). Well, what can I say. I loved every bit of this anime. The characters were my favorite part of Osake wa Fuufu. Chi-chan and Sora gave me diabetes from sugary moments. To say that Osake Fuufu had a lot of sweet moments is a gross understatement. It was like I said, DIABETES worth of sweetness. Couple goals, sweet, relatable, making-you-jealous-of-being-lonely, an anime that restores your faith in humanity. All this is what I and many other watchers felt from watching Osake Fuufu. And this was just on the surface of the cake, if I went beyond I wouldn't be able to end this review and would likely hit the supposed character limit for a MAL review. I have yet to decide on my AOTY but I doubt Osake won't make the Top 5, if not the top 3.

Word of the paragraph: Intoxicant

Overall: 8.2 (Averaged)

Overall Osake Fuufu is an anime that surpasses most full length anime, even though it had a measly 3 minutes on hand. It didn't waste those 3 minutes on pointless filler, beach episodes, hanabi festivals. It used up it's weapons very wisely and didn't waste them away. It was centered on Sake. But what was arguably better was how well the main characters were presented; Sora and Chi-chan. I've seen some good female characters over the years, and very less even moderately decent male characters. I felt this year was vastly inferior to the past years (my mean score chart took a huge dip from the previous years and 2017 is my lowest rated year in THIRTEEN YEARS, since 2004. I didn't expect much from Osake. But what Osake did was shatter ALL of this, it gave me 2017's best female character, it gave me 2017's best male character, and though it couldn't do much to keep this year's mean up, it certainly gave me something to feel positive about 2017. It made me end my anime year on a good note. Arigatou Osake wa fuufu ni natte Kara for making me feel positive about the year. As for you readers, if you like me were dejected at this year and your mean score too took a huge dip, try Osake wa fuufu. It'll leave you with a smile. That's a promise.

Phrase of the season: Shifukuuuuuuuun!

P.S: Seriously guys, Chi-chan is best girl of 2017, no arguments. As well as Sora being husbando of 2017, if not the decade. But to be honest, Sora felt more and more like best Waifu material somewhere along the way too XD So anyway everyone, here's to a somewhat okay-ish 2017 and here's to a hopefully awesome 2018 especially the Spring season. On that note, this is my first review of this year, the first of many. Happy New Year everyone! Drink lots of Osake!

The Gintama series loves to troll it's viewers with false announcements like it's 'cancellation' and a 'Shinsengumi movie' apart from many other trolls (the biggest of which was a movie of the Benizakura arc which was a reality) and this was no other. Sunrise knows that it's fans want a Gintoki background story and they delivered one... Just kidding.

Story: 8/10

For a 10 minute 'episode' it had lots of intense moments (talking about the actual Shiroyasha part here) and though it was pure troll it still made you feel how an actual show or movie would be if it was a reality. Why an 8? Even
in 10 minutes, it still felt like a full fledged episode to some extent. It captured both faces of Gintama perfectly, both the funny and also the serious. It was pure nonsense, and that's all Gintama is at heart.

Art: 9/10

At a widescreen aspect ratio it totally looked like a movie (as pointed out by Gin-san). Although the 'Shiroyasha' part was short, it fired you up, largely because of the small Donten snippet (coming to that in Sound). The fight scenes were also amazingly designed and choreographed and blew me away. I mean, we got to see Gintoki holding a sword! (Not that piece of wood, but an actual sword) and go beast on those Amanto as well sent chills up my spine. The later part of the anime was the usual Gintama art style, bubbly and colorful as always.

Sound: 9/10

Apart from the excellent Donten performed by DOES which gave you goosebumps in excitement and the classic background music everyone was familiar in Gintama with also made you laugh not to mention another brilliant (and troll) performance by the Voice Actors, my favorite was obviously Shinpachi in this episode because he had a lot of lines in this episode (lucky Patsuan).

Character: 7/10

Once again the characters were a joy to watch, thankfully Katsura wasn't on standby this time so we got to see a lot of him as well (much to the chagrin of the Shinsengumi). Apart from him the majority of the cast were featured (including Sarutobi and Madao) and they were decently shown as well (especially for that last bit). Although once again you shouldn't expect Character development from a one-off episode.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Although I was bummed at the troll I still loved the idea of a Shiroyasha movie and it was a lot of fun watching the episode along with the One Piece spoof ED and ending selfie by them all. I really wished it was 24 minutes and not 10 but oh well.

Overall: 8.4/10

Shiroyasha Koutan was a sort of bonus to the fans and a jab at them altogether and was basically your everyday Gintama troll. That's what made it so much fun to watch. It hyped you up, then trolled you but ultimately left you satisfied at the end. A very Gintama-like present to the Gintama fans. Definitely worth the watch!

This may seem like any other special you see for other Anime but for Gintama this was a whole new deal. This was a trial episode of the popular manga Gintama and to see if a viable anime adaptation could be possible or not, and obviously 12 years later we know it did do it's job perfectly. Thanks to many reasons you could consider this the first ever episode of Gintama as well since this was released in 2005, a year before the green-lit superhit Gintama TV show entered it's first season in 2006.

Story: 7/10

The story was divided into two unequal parts, the first just
being a small introduction of the characters (sadly our China Girl didn't get much of one, blame Patsuan), and the second main part, which was basically the Gintama gang at the annual 'flower viewing' event in Japan. It was classic Gintama, tongue-in-cheek jokes and jabs at the studios not to mention pure Gintama comedy for the masses. It didn't feel like a trial at all because usually in trials you expect a serious representation of the manga, but then this is Gintama and that's what made it a joy to watch. Another very important thing was you didn't need to watch this in a specific order. This could be watched whenever regardless of where you are in the Gintama series.

Art: 8/10

To my knowledge, Gintoki didn't have his signature hairstyle (read messed up hair with two strands at the sides) and just showed his hair in a messed up manner. The other characters as well felt washed out a bit along with the backgrounds as well. On the bright side, the color palette was as usual well chosen and perfectly suited it's time, 2005. The characters looked great regardless of the slightly washed out feeling and felt like a full on Gintama episode at best.

Sound: 8/10

Since this was a trial a full fledged soundtrack wasn't made for the episode and some characters like Baka Ouji didn't sound at all like their later voice but the bottom line was Gintama used everything in it's grasp to appeal to the audience in terms of sound as well, also noticed by the "Your Mom is a XX!" song made for the anime. One of the downfalls of the episode was that due to the absence of a sound track you couldn't listen to the familiar Gintama background music that plays during the TV show episodes but still felt like classic Gintama thanks to the excellent work done by the VAs.

Character: 7/10

In just one trial/special they showed most of the cast and introduced them perfectly as well, it totally felt I was back to the world of Gintama and it was a lot of fun looking at the characters in their usual daily shenanigans moving about. They showed the Yorozuya, Shinsengumi and the Gintama women as well (Otae, Catherine, Otose). Although you can't expect character development in a special the characters were decently shown and their interactions were like I said pure fun.

Enjoyment: 9/10

I've said this many times and I will again, this episode felt so much like the actual Gintama episodes and I loved every bit of it. It totally didn't fail to leave a smile on my face after watching and it was interesting to note how Sunrise didn't deviate from this formula at all in Gintama 2006 and then Gintama 2011 as well. It was a brilliant job in my opinion and it made you think of the (not so) humble beginnings of the super-hit series.

Overall: 7.8

Overall this episode can be described in a phrase I used many times in this review, "Classic Gintama". Hilarious, tongue-in-cheek, shameless and an absolute joy to watch. I totally recommend this to anyone wanting to get into the Gintama series but who are a bit taken aback by the huge episode number. If this appeals to you, then definitely the main series will too because it's quite tough to find out the difference between the core of this and the main show as well and retains it's quirky charm throughout. I hope you, like me give it a try and hopefully enter the Gintama series as well.